Complete thesis - Murdoch University

environment. The tension caused is heightened when the discipline itself is cross-discipline.The broad discipline of IT has been described as such (Pham et al, 2005), accompanied, ashas already been noted, by different world views and understandings of the research domain.Studies by Brew (1999, 2001) regarding research in an educational, cross-disciplinary environmentare of interest in that she identifies a journey variation to understanding research.Here research is a transformational voyage of discovery in the researcher’s experience, withthe researchers’ presence (awareness) influencing their understanding of research issues orimpact on broader life. This metaphor aligns with the narrative nature of the reporting ofthis research. First discussed by Connelly and Clandinin (1990), narrative research reportingin education places increased emphasis on the reflective component of the reporting, acknowledgesteacher knowledge (and therefore the ‘insider’ status) and attempts to bring the teachervoice to the forefront (Creswell, 2004). Amongst the defining characteristics of narrative arechronology (unfolding over time); emplotment (the literary juxtaposing of actions and eventsin an implicitly causal sequence); and embeddedness (the personal story nests within a particularsocial, historical and organisational context, which is explicitly stated) (Ochs andCapp, 2001). This view aligns well with the research environment that is the context of thisstudy.However, a requirement of such cross-disciplinary environment is that the diverse intereststhat impact on the study are made explicit – the assumption that these are well understoodby all who examine this research cannot be made. The implication of this is a more exhaustivetreatment of several aspects of this research:• the development of the research design needs to consider concerns that could be raisedfrom each perspective• the literature of both the discipline being impacted on, and of the strategies beingapplied, need to be elaborated so that the argument made is understandable from eachperspective• the interventions themselves must be described and interpreted from each perspective.These considerations also impact on the structure of the thesis, so that some elements ofbackground or detail that more traditionally appear in one place (generally the review of theliterature) are interspersed throughout the discussion of the interventions, as required, forclarity. The purpose of these strategies is to facilitate the exposition of this work: readersfrom the domain addressed in this research may explore areas of unfamiliarity, or skim thoseof which they are knowledgable.15